David McElroy

It’s been six months since I lost Lucy. I like to believe she’s patiently waiting at the gates of heaven — ready for the reunion when I meet her again one day.

I still think about this sweet and faithful companion every single day. If you’ve ever had a dog who you loved, you’ll understand.

When I put the key into my front door when I return home each day, part of me still waits to hear the sound of her tail hitting the door as she realizes I’ve returned.

When I get up in the morning, part of me still feels compelled to get her leash and take her for the first walk of the day — something she loved so much. At night, part of me wants to take her for one last walk before bed, because each walk made her so happy.

But I can’t do those things, because the World’s Happiest Dog isn’t here anymore.

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I’m going to tell you a secret.

You can get far more satisfaction in your own life by bringing joy to others than you can by pursuing pleasure for yourself.

This shouldn’t be a secret, but it seems to be. Almost everyone I know spends his or her time chasing pleasure and ego satisfaction and material goods. For the most part, these people seem remarkably uninterested in making anyone else happy. They’re often indifferent to the people they claim to care about — their friends and family, even — and they’re frequently hostile to strangers.

So if it’s true that bringing joy to others is a clear path to satisfaction for you, why don’t people do that? They either don’t know this secret — or else they can’t believe it’s true.

But I’d like to suggest something simple. If you don’t believe what I’m telling you is true, why don’t you try it? Even if you’re the most selfish person you know, wouldn’t you be a fool not to test what I’m telling you?

If you could have much more life satisfaction and happiness in your life — at little real cost to you — wouldn’t that be an incredibly good deal?

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When I launched a YouTube channel a couple of months ago for video versions of my essays, I started inserting short parody ads into the episodes. My essays were serious, but the parodies were ridiculous and fun. At least to me.

Since these shorts have nothing much to do with the video essays — and function a bit like the cartoon shorts that used to run in theaters before movies many decades ago — I decided to set up a separate channel just for these shorts.

The whimsical conceit of the name and concept is that I’ve set up a factory to crank out silliness that is occasionally funny but always ridiculous and unnecessary. That’s why the logo shows film spooling onto a reel as it comes out of an old-fashioned industrial complex.

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